Intonational Variation in Arabic

28-29^th September 2009 York, UK

We are pleased to announce the first international conference on Intonational Variation in Arabic. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers working on Arabic prosody and intonation, and together to explore the range of prosodic variation observed in spoken varieties of Arabic.

Provisional programme: html (with links to abstracts/pdfs of talks) pdf

Invited speakers:

Professor Francis Nolan (University of Cambridge): Theoretical and practical aspects of studying intra-language intonational variation

Professor Judith Rosenhouse (Swantech Ltd): A Phonetic Delineation of Pragmatic Features in Male Bedouin Narratives

Venue:

Vanbrugh College (room V120), University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD. Maps and directions can be found here: http://www.york.ac.uk/np/maps/

The conference will start early afternoon on Monday 28^th September and end by 6pm latest on Tuesday 29^th September.

Registration:

To register for the conference please send an email to the conference organisers by 12 noon on Friday 25^th September stating name and affiliation.

Registration fees (GBP): £60 full, £30 students (please pay in cash on arrival at the conference, students please bring ID).

Fees include conference dinner (vegetarian buffet in central York) on Monday evening and lunch on Tuesday, plus tea & coffee on both days.

Accommodation:

You may be able to obtain accommodation on the university campus (= nearest possible option to conference venue) via the York Conferences Office. Alternatively, a recommended (cheap) guesthouse in central York, which is however on the direct bus route to campus, is here: http://www.bar-convent.org.uk/guest_rooms.htm Other accommodation options in central York can be found here: http://www.hotelscombined.com/City/York_England.htm

For further information please contact the conference organisers.

Organisers

Sam Hellmuth (University of York), Dana Chahal (University of Melbourne)

Scientific Committee

Dina El Zarka, Janet Fletcher, Brechtje Post, Sonia Frota, Judith Rosenhouse, Martine Grice, Sandra Vella, Barry Heselwood, Janet Watson, Sun Ah Jun, Mohamed Yeou

Local organising committee (University of York)

Sam Hellmuth, Ghazi Al Gethami, Rana Al Hussein Almbark, Nora Al Zahrani

We are grateful for financial support from:

The University of York ~ The Linguistics Association of Great Britain ~ The Council for British Research in the Levant

Call for Papers (now closed)

Papers of a descriptive and/or theoretical nature are invited which treat the phonetics and/or phonology of suprasegmental phenomena in one or more Arabic varieties (or other related Afro-Asiatic languages). Papers treating the intonational phonology of spoken Arabic dialects will be particularly welcome and will be prioritised. The conference will include a special workshop session on the development of transcription systems for research on intonational variation in Arabic.

Abstract submission deadline: June14^th 2009; notification of acceptance: soon after July 5^th 2009

Abstract formatting guidelines

• Abstracts should be no longer than one side of A4 (or 'American letter'), with 2.5cm or one inch margins, single-spaced, with a font size no smaller than 12, and with normal character spacing. A second page may be used to provide examples, figures and references on one further single page (no abstracts will be accepted which are longer than two pages).

• Your abstract should be anonymous. You will be asked to submit a version with your name and affiliation on it if your abstract is selected for presentation. Please do not use your name in the filename for your abstract.

• If you choose to use a phonetic font in your abstract or if you wish to include figures/pitch traces, we strongly recommend that you submit your abstract in pdf format. Abstracts should be uploaded to the iva09 page on the EasyAbstracts site on or before 14^st June 2009. You may use one of the following formats for your abstract: pdf, Word (.doc), or plain text (.txt). All abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by two members of the scientific committee. The link for uploading abstracts is: http://linguistlist.org/confcustom/iva09

• A small number of bursaries will be available to students and/or authors with limited institutional financial support. If you would like to apply for a bursary please mention this when sending your abstract.